If it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, volumes were spoken this week with the images coming from Ferguson, Mo., of heavily armed police and paramilitary vehicles rumbling down the street. It looked for all the world like a war zone. The militarization of local police forces in this country is frightening, and needs to be stopped.

The pictures came in the aftermath of demonstrations protesting the Aug. 9 shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, by police officer Darren Wilson. If more effort had been made in developing good community policing and making the police force better reflect the racial makeup of the town, the tragedy might have been averted. About two-thirds of the city’s 21,100 residents are black. Only three of the department’s 53 officers are black.

Growing numbers of police departments are arming themselves with military-grade equipment, thanks to the largess of the U.S. Department of Defense, which is making surplus equipment available to them free of charge.

Not surprisingly, the surplus military equipment transfer program is popular with police departments. The Defense Department has transferred more than $4.3 billion in equipment since it began in 1997.

Unfortunately, the police can obtain it without approval at the local level. That must change. If it isn’t done through federal legislation, it should be done at the state level. The program needs local oversight.

In the absence of sensible action by Congress, state lawmakers should pass legislation that would require police departments to receive approval from local governing bodies before obtaining the kinds of military firepower from the Defense Department that were seen in Ferguson.

It should be noted that the military surplus program also distributes office furniture, blankets, tents, generators, pick-up trucks and all-terrain vehicles. Some Shore-area departments have rightly taken advantage of that. But they should not be able to obtain military weapons, including grenade launchers, and heavily armored vehicles without oversight by civilian local or state authorities.

The trouble with having access to such clear examples of overkill for the average suburban community is that the police may be tempted to use the weaponry in situations where it would be clearly inappropriate. Its presence alone could further inflame situations. A community on edge does not need to be subjected to what looks like a military invasion in its midst.

In the wake of the Ferguson incident, there is a move in Congress to abolish the military surplus program. That would be unfortunate and unnecessary. Some cities require more than excess pencil sharpeners to keep their citizens safe.

But before law enforcement agencies go off half-cocked, state law should ensure that elected officials be granted some oversight over what equipment police departments have available to them.